The
Sun and Moon in Families

by Erin Sullivan

Astrology is not gender-biased

Astrology is not gender-biased. The planets are not discrete energies
making us do things, nor do they have sexual gender as we understand
it to mean males and females. Masculine and feminine do not necessarily
always refer to men and women. If those statements are true, then
we cannot say, ‘The Sun is male and the Moon is female, therefore
the Sun is our father-archetype and the Moon is our mother archetype.’ The
common astrological conclusion reached here is based on cumulative
and compounded fragments of selective information seen through the
eyes and interpreted in the minds of whoever is in the thinking-mode
of currency at any given time in history. It is thought that myths
arise spontaneously in cultures and have mysterious parallels with
other cultural mythologies even when those cultures would never have
interacted or when those cultural myths arose in cultures that were
not contemporaneous. There are many pre-Greek and other cultural
myths that have sky-goddesses and solar heroines as well as Moon-gods
and lunar masculine images.

It seems we astrologers are guilty of stretching and contriving
interpretations of myths in order to render them useful to us. Very
often, this works well, especially if we take myth as allegorical,
but in some instances it can be badly misleading, especially if the
stories are biased toward male or female, which in turn will inevitably
be translated into ‘mother’ or ‘father’ or ‘daughter’ or ‘son’.
In an astrology book on families, we must be scrupulous not to arbitrarily
assign strict gender roles to planetary agencies, but to try to find
relationships between the masculine and feminine archetypes and see
how they are played out in the family dynamic among all members,
and how they are transferred through individuals in the family regardless
of their gender.

With respect to the symbols, Sun and Moon, in the chart, we must
be even more circumspect about not stereotyping or restricting their
imagery. It is far too easy to designate parental roles to each of
them because we have so much material which falls beautifully into
place - and there are symbolic reasons that the Moon is more akin
to the maternal line and the Sun the paternal, but it is not because
the Sun and Moon are respectively masculine and feminine. However,
we have to remember that the origins of the assignment of masculine
to the Sun and feminine to the Moon are archaic, and from those origins,
all our astrological interpretations have been extrapolated and overlaid
with that information.

The first consideration before delving into the symbolism of the
luminaries is that they each in their symbolic self are not confined
to one or other parent. To relegate the Sun to the father and the
Moon to the mother at best oversimplifies the imagery and at worst
distorts completely our understanding of the full human person. However -
and this is a major contingency - it is very likely that because
of this stereotyping we do find our parents more one than
the other. That is, we might find our mother more lunar than our
father and vice versa, or our lunar nature more influenced and represented
by mother and the solar character more enhanced by and embodied in
our father. Then, based upon the interpretation of the Sun and Moon
which is traditional now, we say our mother is the Moon and
our father the Sun. From that, we interpret our charts, or worse,
other people’s charts, in that way. All aspects from the Moon
tell us what mother was like and all aspects from the Sun dictate
our father’s legacy to us. Knowing this tendency, we must include
in our own bias the very real condition of our inner relationship
to the outer world - we are very much a product of our own civilization
and role-typing. There is a deep collusion between what we project
and what we receive. It then makes perfect sense that we should relate
to the Moon/mother and Sun/father doctrine. I, myself, have done
it, do it and likely will continue to find it appropriate and fitting
in most cases, on the archetypal level.

It does not follow, however, that we must swallow it whole or continue
to do this by rote. We might consider opening the end of our bias
and incorporating the possibility that the Sun and Moon are our
parents in the most archetypal sense. How the Great-Mother, Hero-Father
archetype is portrayed in mothers and fathers and is individuated
through each person is where creative interpretation should allow
for greater latitude of solar or lunar expression. That is, they
are the symbols for the various ways in which we become increasingly
ourselves, they are the images through which we might best picture
the ways in which we experience our innate, collective human-ness.
The Sun and Moon are the archetypal marriage and how we marry ourselves
within ourselves is related to the Sun/Moon dyad in our horoscope.
How we mediate polarities within our psyche and mind is represented
in the soli-lunar relationship. For instance, Sun/Moon opposition
people tend toward splits and mediation-type personalities. They
experience dichotomy very intensely, and tend to cope with problems
by mediating both sides, having an innate awareness of the differences
between the masculine and feminine agencies; whereas, say, Sun/Moon
trine people tend to have an idealized vision of the ‘archetypal
parents’ inherent within their psyche, hence not as prepared
to deal with the possible difficulties that are intrinsic within
the masculine/feminine polarity.

The Sun/Moon dyad is essential to understanding bi-polarism and
options, differences and distinctions between experiencing the same
things in different ways - in other words when an event occurs, we
have it ‘happen’ on many, many levels, and the Sun/Moon
dyad presents [a rather simplistic] a way for us to understand two
levels of experiencing the same event.

Dane Rudhyar was very clear on the Sun/Moon principle of unity
in duality: the
astrological Sun and Moon are partners, pairs, a couple, as it were,
in relationship. His book, The Lunation Cycle, was a breakthrough
in synthetic astrology. He made it very clear that planets do not
exist singularly, that they are in relationship at all times. The
significance of the soli-lunar cycle was found in its waxing and
waning cycles - the natural laws of relationship are fluctuating
all the time, manifestly and subtly.

There have been many theories about the natal lunation-cycle and
the parental relationship, for example: the Sun and Moon in opposition ‘means
that the parents were in discord or at best, diametrically opposed
in their beliefs .’ Which, then, is extrapolated out to be
interpreted in the natal chart as a psychological ‘split’ effected
by this polarization of the parents (parental images of Sun and Moon
) wherein the masculine and feminine sides of the individual are
not in unison. Well, when are they? Rarely, and when they
are, a sense of perfect inner harmony is the result. Whether or not
this is a consequence of the direct influence of one’s mother
and father, is highly speculative. That it results from how we are
innately and how we perceived our parents is closer, much
closer to the truth. Which body, Sun or Moon, is best exemplified
by mother and which is more father could vary in many ways at different
times in our lives. We come back to the dialectic of nature and nurture.

There are characteristics which are distinctly lunar and others
which are solar - if we consider various significant aspects of our
motivating forces in life, for example: conscience; habits; responsibility;
relating; ego-development; creativity, and so on, we might look upon
the Sun and Moon and find in which way each of these bodies have
played roles in the dominant way we achieve the end result of each
of those character building, individual components.

Unity in Duality

The Sun and Moon contribute equally to our ability to have reactions
to and create life-patterns in various ways, but the following list
comprises a short inventory of some of the most significant aspects
of the Sun and Moon ’s contribution to our character:

conscience

habits

responsibility

relating

ego-development

creativity

This is a list of keywords to be associated with contemplating the
value of the luminaries in the horoscope. They are not definitions
for each body. We have both a Sun and a Moon , and two parents .
. . the feelings associated with all of those can be combined or
differentiated.

SUN

MOON

logos - name/word

ennoia - seed idea

nomos - law

physis - nature

social

instinctual

conscious

unconscious

ego

id

tradition

'now', present, current, urgent

structural

spontaneous

civilized

animalistic

thoughts

being-ness

ideas

irrational / non-rational

meaning

essence

libido

eros

desire

desire / permeating

celestial (solar system)

chthonic (earth's Moon)

regulated, constant

calibrated, phased

cerebral

visceral

order

chaos

democratic

anarchic

objective

subjective

individual / cultural

collective / global

The Sun and Solarism

The Sun is the centre of the solar system, and in the family of
planets acts in just that way. It has high expectations of the others,
and in itself, the Sun is the most powerful figure in the horoscope.
As the focus, the Sun represents how our life-force was received
in the family and how our self and ego develops in accord with family
values. The Sun can overpower other planets in the horoscope in quite
primitive ways, when the ego-nature of the individual is stronger
than and disconnected from his or her conscious sense of integrity
or ethics. The nature of the Sun is to radiate, outshine and expose
all things to its relentless light. It is the attention seeker, the
planet which defies all, even Pluto, to check its power. The Sun
has authority, but equally that authority can be undermined, thwarted
or subverted by other planets, as it is a rare chart that has an
unaspected Sun. The authority of the Sun can also dominate other
planets, not allowing them to develop their full potential - just
as a too-heroic or mythic-type father can weaken his children’s
power, a too-dominant Sun can obliterate gentler sides of an individual.

The Sun is the archetypal father-image, the heroic principle, and
is usually associated with the male role-models in the family and
the paternal line. The Sun in the chart can appear to stand alone.
We must always keep in mind the Sun is never really ‘alone’ because
both Mercury and Venus are never far from this central figure, but
it can be segregated from the Gestalt of the rest of
the horoscope, in which case there are a number of other planets
retrograde. This often shows an individual with an extremely unique
way of being and one who finds it very uncomfortable relating to
the average standards of his or her culture - particularly his or
her family system!

When looking at the Sun in the chart with respect to family issues,
it is very likely to draw immediate attention to one’s own
father and his unconscious imprint in one’s psychic formation.
The physical presence or absence of the father seems irrelevant in
many cases, because the underlying archetypal expectation of the
father is stamped in the solar figure in the horoscope. The father’s
unlived life can quicken in the soul of his children and thus become
a powerful ingredient in the child’s personality development.
This is clearly both positive and negative - if we have to bear unrealistic
expectations and must consciously overcome the failures of our father,
then we can suffer undue guilt and responsibility-feelings. Our Sun
can be arrested in its development in order that the issues unresolved
in our father can be transformed through us.

In
contrast, the ‘healthy’ Sun can gently urge a child to
emulate his or her father in positive ways, seeing clearly that his
failures or successes are not their own problems. However, even the
most basic psychological knowledge shows us that unresolved complexes
in the parents are passed on for the children to seek solution. We
will find that the solar legacy is one which most frequently runs
down through the paternal line, and is then passed on through the
next generations. Both men and women can carry paternal legacies
- men identify more with the male principle through the Sun with
respect to their sense of male-identity and desire to build, conquer
and protect, while women utilize the solar legacy in their desire
to control and conduct lives independent from the emotional zones
of families and relationships.

Aspects formed by the Sun to other planets are often a literal
image of how we perceived our father and his influence in our heroic
- productive - life. As mentioned previously, the Sun needs challenge
to develop its potential characteristics and assist in the development
of the ego. Usually, it is the father who enacts this kind of role-model
for the children by being elusive, exciting, unpredictable in his
appearances, big, strong, foreign to the nest, influential in the
governing of the family, et cetera. This structure may appear to
be archaic in its description, but then archetypes are out
of time and lie at the base of our social and personal lives. Sometimes
the father is strong in influence by his absence and conversely weak
by his presence. Aside from our ‘dad’, we have a celestial-father
image in our psyche, and the Sun shows what that is.

Individuals with the Sun rising or in the MC of the chart experience
extraordinary pressure to succeed in whatever endeavour is undertaken.
This can be fun if the person is allowed to slowly develop his or
her own interests and is allowed to show-off on a regular basis all
that she has accomplished! If, however, the pressure is toward a
skill or interest of the father’s and not instinctive, or the
expectation is literally received from the father, then the solar
principle feels thwarted and the ego develops a shell or crust to
protect the deeper Self from being hurt or damaged by this transgression
of natural law. The Sun strongly placed in the angles like this does
indicate a powerful psychological connection to the father and the
person carries the father with them into everything that is presented
to the world.

An unaspected Sun is an indication that the individual will need
to find a completely new way of using his or her ego to find something
outside the family dynamic to pursue. There is a maverick energy
with unaspected planets, and it often indicates that a ‘new
soul’ has come into the family to break professional, social
hierarchies. The unaspected Sun person will find it exceptionally
difficult to conform to the family, but will attempt to do so until
a turning point occurs, allowing them to set off in their own direction.
Often their father has not been traditionally paternal, has been
a ‘friend’ or completely absent by circumstances or choice.
There is usually a very strong longing for a father, or father figure,
but because there is no aspect from the Sun to another planet, there
is no clear image of the father in the psyche. Hence, the person
has to become their own father, or to become their own authority.
All the words that stem from the Latin auctor - author, authority,
authenticity, and all derivatives are especially significant for
unaspected solar people. They must find inner validation rather than
seeking it from without. This often means long periods of wandering,
looking, seeking and searching for purpose and direction in life.

Solar Themes in Family Dynamics

To preface this delineation, remember that these are themes,
that is, they can manifest in either direction, overtly or covertly.
They can also be made obvious by negation - for example, a Sun-Jupiter
theme can be so inverted in one person that it results in one family
member being very introverted, never travelling far from home, having
narrow viewpoints and very little in the way of social energy, while
another member of the same family travels widely, has a variety of
activities, enacts for the others the exciting, dramatic and expansive
life. Likewise, a Sun-Saturn theme can run from being terribly successful
and goal-oriented to being downtrodden and melancholic, not fulfilling
his or her fullest potential. Remember in families one can find a
both/and situation - functional families are not static, are always
flowing and continually finding new ways of accommodating, communicating,
balancing, compensating and surviving. Truly and severely dysfunctional
families do not allow for change, flux or dynamic action and the
homeostatic principle is very strong and there is always an ‘identified
patient’, someone who is carrying the illness of the family-theme
- the scapegoat, the black sheep or the circuit breaker. With that
mind, these are two examples of the energetic solar themes of family
dynamics:

Sun/Mars(including
solar aspects with Aries)

The family is heroic and adventurous, and often, competitive energies
flow through the family psyche. This
can produce high-achievers (or counter with strong conservatives
and depressives if Saturn is part of the theme), executive types
and self-made men and women. Each individual’s ego development
occurs in spurts and erratic characteristics abound; often, one member
is the leader, the ‘shining one’ while another appears
to haunt or darken the family collective. Individuating through the
Sun/Mars family requires brute force - either mental or physical;
the timid don’t survive well emotionally, while innovators
who have strong originality and a thick skin do. Wanderers, mavericks,
renegades and individualists are lovingly, though occasionally grudgingly,
respected. If combined with Jupiter, there is a manic-depressive
atmosphere where someone is always countering or balancing the extremes
- this family usually produces a mediator-type who trots back and
forth or who suffers because of enmity between two others in the
family whom she or he loves equally. One member may have to withdraw
in order for the whole family to survive as a system. The balance
of the family dynamic is tenuous and spark-filled, creating a sense
of balancing and counter-balancing all the time. This family attracts
nurturers, carers and usually, quite stable relationship-partners
to counter-balance the over-aggressive energy.

Sun/Uranus (including
solar aspects with Aquarius)

This is a signature found in the archetypal disengaged family we
read about in the chapter The Family as a System. There is so much
encouragement to be oneself at as early an age as possible that often
the necessary aspect of repression and civilisation for the sake
of society is ignored completely. This is a highly unconventional
signature for any group of people who wish to work together, unless
it is via the Internet, or on the intercom, Cellnet or via satellite
transmission. One would not think of this family-theme as ‘warm’,
loving or overly-concerned about the feelings of others in the group.
This does not mean that it is none of those things, has no feeling-tone
or is sociopathic, but it will not appear to be a family in concert
that way. The best of the solar/Uranian energy encourages freedom
of thought, action and in relationships. The path of finding one’s
own way is well-developed and those whose families have this theme
might find it very difficult indeed, if they have subscribed to a
more conventional, Norman Rockwell-type vision. Certainly, personal
ego development is encouraged, but in fact it is deeply threatening
to the Sun/Uranus family because there is an element of competitiveness
necessary to individuate. What others might regard as eccentricity
is regarded as a normal and valued trait. What appears chaotic or
weird to visitors from outside the family is very likely a security-system
for the individuals within it. The privacy of each person inside
a family of this nature ensures that no-one really knows who
the other is and each thinks he or she is the ‘sane’ one
and everyone else is the eccentric - while, in fact, each are all
quite mad in their own way. Of all the human attributes, thinking
is most meritorious; creativity and innovation is valued far above
order; autocracy is essential to self-discovery and individuation
requires repeated departures and returns to and from the matrix of
the family. The inconsistency in itself is a form of stability, however,
for any one individual who needs more attention, more nurture, more
assurance, this is a very uncomfortable home and even a run-of-the-mill
kind of emotional need can be seen as a cloying, infantile behaviour.
There does appear to be mixed messages floating around all the time
- ambivalent feelings abound in the Sun/Uranus collective, and if
this grouping produces a distant, cool and detached aura, then eventually
it will freeze itself out of existence - which often is staved off
by importing a Watery, emotionally expressive, yet cool person via
marriage or through partnership.

The Moon and Lunacy

In the family of planets, the Moon is two things: mother and baby.
It is the needy one and the caring one. The Moon is the ‘planet’ which
gets attention by alternately whining, manipulating, insinuating,
being moody, helpless, infantile, subtle - or affects other planets
in the chart by being powerfully silent and suggestive, helpful,
cautious, concerned, nurturing and protective. Its nature is to impose
itself on other more linear planets in emotional ways - feelings,
irrational behaviour and implications can even unsettle old Saturn!
Although the Moon is reflective and implicitly related to the Sun
(all its light is solar-reflection, or earth-shine) it is the most
holistically influential body in the family of planets - and in the
horoscope when viewed for family matters.

The Moon is the mother-image, the adaptive principle, and is usually,
but not always, associated with the females in the family -
mother, aunts, sisters, and the maternal line. The Moon is the container
of the infant, its home during the formation of its body and deep
instinctual nature. Lunar responses to life outside the womb can
be traced back to the short intra-uterine experience. In the womb
we are our mothers, we are not separate, but one. Her nourishment
is ours, her heart-beat is tuned with ours, her emotions affect us,
her body holds our body. This is the most significant body in the
horoscope with respect to family dynamics, for it is the maternal
line which acts as the conduit for generational transition. The Moon
should be looked at as the primal, instinctual response to one’s
life-force. The Moon can be the weakest link in the chart - one can
be strong, heroic, creative, amusing, innovative, brilliant and healthy
but can be emotionally barren, hostile, tortured and impoverished.

The Moon in the horoscope shows how our environment affected us
from the very instant of birth - and from that premise, how we perceive
our environment and the people in it. The first contact with the
outside world is meant to be the receiving arms of our mother. The
infant, longing for reconnection to its source of life, is infused
with this primal imprint all the rest of life. The mood of the moment
in astrology is the Moon - the Moon in the natal chart is the mood
of life for us!

The Moon holds images of the fourth house, and in the fourth house
lies the ancestral pool - not just the mother but the blending of
maternal and paternal lines. This blend is held in the alembic of
the fourth house, or the womb of the horoscope and if the Moon is
a very strong planet, then there are personal ancestral issues to
be delved into. Only in conversation with ourself (or with a client
with a strong lunar link) can we determine to what degree this is
a maternal issue alone.

One very significant pattern in which the Moon can be problematic,
and actually talks of both parents, one by absence and the other
by over-prominence is the ‘amputated Moon ’. When the
Moon is separated from the rest of the Gestalt of the horoscope
- the handle of a bucket formation, it is very difficult for the
person to be able to connect his or her feelings with behaviour,
either of his or her own, or others. This lunar oddity usually indicates
that there was a serious problem with the feminine in the family.
It can indicate the only male in a family of women, or a family in
which the father was particularly weak and ineffective. Men with
this amputated Moon find it easier for women to carry their feelings
than for them to be responsible for their own. It is absolutely necessary
for the split-off Moon person to make every conscious effort to practice
discovery of feelings. A typical scenario could run thus: a man has
no idea what a woman is feeling and charges ahead with ideas, plans,
expectations and assumptions and is shocked, horrified and dismayed
to discover that she has no idea what he is wanting or thinking.
Another issue could arise when the man is so disconnected from his
own feelings that he damages the women around him by unconsciously ‘using’ them
or their feelings to his own end.

Women who have this configuration find that they are oddly out
of synch with their own feelings, they have tremendous intuition
about other people, because they have likely grown up in an environment
wherein they had to divorce their own feelings on behalf of looking
after their mother’s or their sibling’s feelings. They
find that they have a delayed reaction to emotional situations and
are dissonant within themselves. These women are incredibly capable,
reliable and have the potential for taking on very solar work, but
suffer quietly, wondering why no man or woman will come to look after
them.

The segregated Moon is like a hook, other people can hang their
feelings on it, weighing it down, leaving no room for the owner of
it to claim their feelings. This can be sad or it can be so unconscious
that only their most intimate friends and particularly, lovers will
be aware of it. The image that comes to mind is this: if we were
to fold the horoscope in half, thus ‘folding’ the Moon
back into the other half of the chart, it would be integrated. On
an emotional level, this needs to be done, and can be through conscious
effort and awareness. There will always be an admirable capacity
for emotional clarity and objectivity with this position, but its
pathology is coldness, lack of empathy and delayed responses. It
could be an ideal place for the Moon if it were treated in this way,
using the metaphor of folding the chart in half, thus achieving integration.

Lunar Themes in Family Dynamics

Two examples:

Moon/Venus (includes
lunar aspects with Libra and/or Taurus)

The receptivity to aggression is most powerful; there may be a strong
maternal lineage which polarizes in the maternal/feminine dichotomy
of the Madonna/Magdalene image of woman; that
is, sensuality versus sexuality; maternity versus femininity;
expressive; emotionally dominant; high level of romantic themes in
relationships. There can be a confusion of values in the family,
strong passionate agreement and disagreement on emotional and value-laden
subjects. Feelings can dominate the rational capacity to understand
what is expected of one. The function of creativity is very high
and often encouraged, as both the Moon and Venus have to do with
art and the senses. In the family, the emotional tone is the central
principle, or at least the Moon/Venus person responds to the emotional
tone powerfully. The nurturing, caring, controlling pattern is passed
into both men and women equally, but for men the Moon/Venus dichotomy
can create a problem in sexuality wherein his wife ceases to be seen
as his lover because the archetype of the dual feminine image is
split. Moon/Venus splits are natural in the sense that there are
two archetypal images of the feminine - the seductress and the maternal
nurturer. However, when the Moon and Venus are in hard aspect, particularly
the square and opposition, there are frequently problems in integrating
the two faces of femininity. Very often, the women - especially the
mother - in the family have hidden one or other of her 'sides'. For
example, she has shown only the social, industrial and beautiful
woman-face or she has suborned her 'seductress' by her maternal role,
sacrificing her more exotic, erotic self.

Moon/Pluto (including
lunar aspects with Scorpio)

Something hidden lurks in the family history; the emotional tone
is intense, controlling and compelling. This is very likely a matriarchal
line, wherein the women dominate by psychic and material management
ability. This is the strongest indicator that there is a secret in
the family, which will emerge through one of the hereditary members
who has a Moon in Scorpio, in the eighth house, or hard aspects of
the Moon to Pluto. The family line is loaded with healers and magicians,
law-makers and law-breakers. Perhaps partly because of its incredible
emotional endurance, a deep perceptivity, emotional maturing is achieved
early, though usually this seasoned, even jaded attitude is directly
related to some form of exposure to ‘adult’ experiences
and situations, which are incomprehensible to a child-mind and catapult
the individual into premature adulthood. It is often necessary for
some form of emotional amputation to take place for the sake of survival,
and always surfaces later. This characteristic threads through all
Plutonian-theme families and, as a result, they are particularly
sensitive to hidden agendas and always subject to emotional blackmail
and fear of loss. Feuding in the family is very common, sometimes
for a lifetime, but often just for the power struggle. Individuals
in the family can experience feelings of loneliness in crowded rooms
- for the family background is always present. There is always powerful
psychic connection of the mother with other family members; the father
can be hidden from view, but powerful in his emotional or physical
absence. There can be strong attachment to revenge, lack of forgiveness,
inability to let pride fall away in favour of harmony. Myths about
the history of the family are populated with eccentrics, rebels,
imperialists, invaders, renegades, cowboys/Indians, illegitimate
kin, defrocked priests, lapsed nuns, mysterious disappearances, secrets
and unexplained deaths.

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